Holt Manufacturing Company
Encyclopedia
The Holt Manufacturing Company traces its roots to the 1883 establishment of Stockton Wheel Service in Stockton, California
, United States
. Benjamin Holt
, who was later credited with patenting the first workable crawler tractor design, incorporated the Holt Manufacturing Company in 1892. Holt Manufacturing Company was the first company to successfully manufacture a continuous track tractor. By the turn of the twentieth century Holt Manufacturing Conmpany was the leading manufacturer of combine harvesters in the United States and the leading California-based manufacturer of steam traction engines.
Holt Manufacturing Company operated from its base in Stockton, California, until opening a satellite facility in Walla Walla, Washington
, to serve the Pacific Northwest. In 1909, Holt Manufacturing Company expaneded by purchasing the facility of defunct farm implement maker Colean Manufacturing Company in East Peoria, Illinois
. Holt changed the name of the company to Holt Caterpillar Company, although he did not trademark the name Caterpillar until 1911.
The company's initial products focused on agricultural machinery
and were distributed internationally. During World War I
, almost all of its production capacity was dedicated to military needs. Its tractors replaced horses
and were widely used by the Allies as artillery tractor
s and for hauling supplies. British General Ernest Swinton
recognized in the Holt tractor
the potential for a power-driven, bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy machine gun
s, although the British later chose an English firm to build the first tank
s. Holt's equipment was credited with helping to win the war and its tractor was regarded as "one of the most important military vehicles of all time." The Holt Manufacturing Company gained worldwide recognition for the quality and durability of its equipment.
As the war ended, the Holt company was left with huge surplus inventories of heavy-duty tractors ill-suited for the agricultural market, which had been dominated during the war by the Holt Company's primary competitor, C. L. Best
. The company decided to focus instead on heavy construction equipment and sought to capitalize on the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921
. Laden with debt and needing more capital to switch its product line, the company struggled to move forward.
Both the Holt Manufacturing Company and C. L. Best were hurt by the depression of 1920–21 which further inhibited sales. Both companies streamlined their over-lapping product lines. The two companies had spent about US$1.5 million (about $ today) in legal fees fighting each other in various contractual
, trademark
and patent infringement
lawsuits since 1905, but, on the advice of investors, the two companies merged in 1925 to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co. In 2010, Caterpillar Inc.
was the 229th largest company in the world.
, in 1864 to form C. H. Holt and Co. Initially the company produced wooden wheels for wagons and, later on, steel wheels for streetcars. In 1869, at age 20, his younger brother Benjamin went to work in their father's sawmill in New Hampshire along with William Harrison Holt and Ames Frank Holt, preparing hardwood
s for shipping to Charles in San Francisco. William and Ames joined Charles in San Francisco in 1871.
In the same year, Charles and Ames established the Holt Brothers Company in San Francisco. The company sold hardwood, lumber, and wagon and carriage materials, primarily manufacturing wagon axles, wheels, and frames. W. Harrison Holt and Ames both temporarily returned around 1871 to New Hampshire – where both were married – to manage the eastern business. The brothers built a factory in Concord, New Hampshire, to manufacture wagon wheels, wheel components, bodies and running gear. In 1872, at age 23, Benjamin was given an interest in his father's business, and he assumed more responsibility for the company's operations. W. Harrison Holt moved to Tiffin, Ohio
, to manage the company's lumber business there, where he remained until the early 1880s. Their mother died in 1875, and their father died eight years later in 1883. After his father's death, Benjamin Holt left New Hampshire in 1883 to help Charles build the business in California.
Charles, Benjamin and Frank incorporated the Holt Bros. Company on January 7, 1892, to deal in lumber and iron. Four days later, they also filed incorporation papers for "Holt Manufacturing Company" with Charles H. Holt, Benjamin Holt, Frank A. Holt, G. H. Cowie and G. L. Dickenson as directors.
The Holt Bros. Company formed a subsidiary, the "The Stockton Wheel Company", to build the wheels. They based their company in the warm Central Valley town of Stockton, California
. Stockton was an ideal location, as it could be reached by sea-going ship via the San Joaquin River
, 72 miles (115.9 km) east of San Francisco, and was hot enough to season woods in a way that would prepare them for use in the arid valleys of California and the deserts of the West. The factory cost USD$65,000 (or about $ ) to build and used a 40-horsepower Corliss steam engine
that had been manufactured in Providence, Rhode Island
, and shipped around Cape Horn
. All of the plant's machines were driven by belts
connected to the Corliss engine.
Brothers Charles and Benjamin eventually bought-out the other brothers, with Charles running the business side and Benjamin running manufacturing operations.
During the first year, the Holt subsidiary Stockton Wheel Company produced 6,000 wagon wheels and 5,000 carriage bodies. One of their most popular wheel types was 10 feet (3 m) in diameter and used by redwood
loggers, who connected two of these wheels with a strong 10 feet (3 m) axle, and then attached a team of horses to pull logs from the forest.
and other farm equipment. They soon moved on inventing steam-powered farm machinery and, later, designs for crawler-type tractors. More than 100 patents were issued for various crawler designs. Holt began manufacturing horse-drawn combine harvesters in the 1890s and converted to steam-power types around the turn of the 20th century. Over the next few years Benjamin Holt designed and manufactured the first successful crawler-type tractor and designed a gasoline engine (see Tractor design, below.)
In California, the Best Manufacturing Company
of San Leandro
and the Holt Manufacturing Company were direct competitors. In 1905, they resolved a patent infringement
lawsuit when Daniel Best
retired and gave one-third of Best Manufacturing Company to his son, Clarence Leo ("C. L.") Best
. He sold the remaining two-thirds to Benjamin Holt for USD$325,000 (roughly equivalent to $ today). C. L. Best was made plant manager of the new concern, but Holt retained effective control. C. L. did not stay long, however, but left in 1910 to form the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company
to replace his father's firm, resulting in further difficulties between the two men. Holt registered "Caterpillar" as a trademark in 1911.
, where he began manufacturing operations. They shipped parts for ten Model 45 tractors, but only two were produced. Pliny met Murray Baker
, an implement dealer, who knew of an available factory that had been used to manufacture farm implements and steam traction engine
s. Baker, who later became the first executive vice president of what became Caterpillar Tractor Company
, wrote to Holt headquarters in Stockton and described the plant of the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Co. of East Peoria, Illinois
. Pliny inspected the Colean factory in late June 1909 and learned they had spent at least $450,000 on the relatively new building and machinery. Holt could acquire the assets for the $50,000 note held by a trust company. Pliny Holt wrote a letter to the Stockton management team on July 1, 1909, reporting, "The plant is as complete and perfect in every detail as I have ever seen ... and one of the best arranged plants that I ever saw."
On October 25, 1909, Pliny Holt purchased the factory, and immediately began preparing the plant for operations with 12 employees.
The "Holt Caterpillar Company" was incorporated
in both Illinois and California on January 12, 1910, and Pliny accepted the deed to the plant on Feb. 16, 1910. East Peoria became Holt Manufacturing Company's eastern manufacturing plant, competing with the nearby Avery Tractor Company
.
The Peoria facility proved so profitable that only two years later the Peoria facility employed 625 people and was exporting tractors to Argentina
, Canada
, and Mexico
. Tractors were built in both Stockton and East Peoria.
In 1909, the engineers building the 230 miles (370.1 km) Los Angeles Aqueduct
bought one of Holt's Model 70-120
tractors to haul supplies across the Mojave Desert
. It effortlessly hauled 30 short tons (26.8 LT) up a 14% grade. They were so impressed that they ordered 26 more, giving the Holt tractor and the company considerable credibility and substantially boosting sales.
; the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton; and the Holt Caterpillar Company of Peoria, Illinois.
s during World War I and their capabilities and reliability had become well-known. Benjamin Holt also gained valuable experience securing government contracts. These capabilities separated him from his competition. Holt had obtained significant loans and begun a large expansion to meet the war planners' need for his tractors.
C. L. Best Gas Tractor Company
had meanwhile concentrated on supplying the market for smaller agricultural tractors. Although Best did not make tractors for the war effort, they had secured promises from the federal government that they would be able to obtain all the steel required to continue building tractors for farmers during the war. As a result, Best had gained a considerable market advantage over Holt by war's end. Best also assumed considerable debt to allow it to continue expansion, especially production of its new Best Model 60 "Tracklayer".
When the war ended, Holt's planned expansion to meet the military's needs was no longer needed. The company was left in a difficult situation. The types of tractors needed by the military were very different from what farmers needed. Their situation was worsened as artillery tractors were brought back from Europe, depressing prices for new equipment and Holt's unsold inventory of military tractors. The company moved to focus less on agricultural machinery and more on producing road-building equipment. To keep the company afloat, they borrowed heavily.
Both companies were affected by the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy, which contributed to a nationwide depression, further inhibiting sales.
On December 5, 1920, 71-year-old Benjamin Holt died after a month-long illness. Holt had been considered a "quiet and unassuming man who loved his work". He was well liked by his workers and dedicated a trust fund for employees who suffered financial difficulties.
funded a USD$1 billion federal highway building program, Baxter began focusing company assets towards road construction. Along with the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company, formed by Clarence Leo Best
in 1910, Holt faced fierce competition with the Fordson
company.
Between 1907 and 1918, Best and Holt had spent about USD$1.5 million in legal fees fighting each other. The two companies competed economically and intellectually: Benjamin Holt had 47 patents in his name, while his nephew Pliny Holt had 38 patents; Best founder Daniel Best received 42 patents and his son C. L. Best had 27 patents.
Harry H. Fair of the bond brokerage house of Pierce, Fair & Company of San Francisco was involved in funding C. L. Best's debt, when Holt shareholders approached him about their company's financial plight. He concluded that both companies might not survive and recommended that the Holt and Best companies should consolidate operations. In April and May 1925, the financially stronger C. L. Best merged with the market leader Holt Caterpillar to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co.
Baxter had been removed as CEO earlier in 1925, and Clarence Leo Best assumed the title of CEO, and remained in that role until October, 1951. The new company was headquartered in San Leandro until 1930, when under the terms of the merger it was moved to Peoria.
The Caterpillar company consolidated its product lines, offering only five track-type tractors: the 2 Ton, 5 Ton, and 10 Ton from the Holt Manufacturing Company's old product line and the and from the C. L. Best Tractor Co.'s former product line. The 10 Ton and 5 Ton models were discontinued in 1926. In 1928, the 2 Ton was discontinued. The first completely new tractor produced after the union of the two companies was the 1929 Caterpillar L20.
After Benjamin Holt's death in 1920, William K. "Bill" Holt formed the first Caterpillar dealership in Mexico. In 1933, he was authorized to operate the dealership for the 60 southern counties of Texas. The company merged with another Holt business and was renamed HOLT CAT. It continues as the largest Caterpillar dealerships in the United States.
As of 2010, Caterpillar Inc.
was the 229nd largest company in the world,
In 2011, Caterpillar was the best-performing stock last year among the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average with a market value of USD$45.13 billion. Caterpillar is one of the 30 companies whose stock
is tracked in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
. It is a Fortune 500
company, ranked number 229 in 2010, and first in its industry, with more than $67 billion in asset
s.
s and the steam-powered traction engine
s required to pull them through the fields. In 1883, Benjamin Holt produced his first horse-drawn "Link-Belt Combined Harvester". It allowed a farmer to combine cutting
and threshing
grain into a single mechanical operation, enabling farmers to cut more wheat in one pass, increasing productivity and cutting labor hours nearly in half. One key innovation Holt implemented was using flexible chain belts
rather than gear
s to transmit power from the ground wheels to the working parts of the machine.
In 1886, the company sold its first combine harvester
. It had a 14 feet (4.3 m) cutting bar and was pulled by an 18-horse team. The largest combine Stockton Wheel Co. manufactured had a 50 feet (15.2 m) cutting bar. In comparison, large modern combines have a 20 feet (6.1 m) cutting bar. Some of the Holt combines needed as many as 40 horses to operate.
Holt adapted the combine to work on slopes. He added two separate wooden frames which enabled the drive wheels to be raised or lowered independently. This allowed the combine to operate on slopes as steep as 30 degrees while the threshing machine remained level. In 1890, Holt built his first experimental steam traction engine
, nicknamed "Old Betsy". Built on a 24 feet (7.3 m) frame, it developed 60 hp from a single cylinder
(11 inches (279.4 mm), 12 inches (304.8 mm)). The firebox could burn wood, coal, or oil as fuel. Carrying 675 gal of water, the traction engine weighed 48000 lbs and rode on huge metal wheels. Holt's tractors were popular despite their weight and awkward size because they could harvest large fields for one-sixth the cost of a horse-drawn combine. Foresters soon adapted them to haul redwood
logs out of road-less forests. By 1897, the company had about 200 employees and had sold over 800 of their combined harvesters in California. Holt Manufacturing made about 130 steam-powered tractors between 1890 and 1904.
The steam tractors were extremely heavy, sometimes weighing 1000 pounds (453.6 kg) per horsepower
, and often sank into the rich, soft earth of the San Joaquin Valley Delta farmland surrounding Stockton, California
. Holt tried to solve the problem by increasing the size and width of the wheels, but this also made the tractors increasingly complex, expensive and difficult to maintain. One tractor had wheels 7.5 feet (2.3 m) tall and 6 feet (1.8 m) wide, producing a tractor 46 feet (14 m) wide. Holt could spend hours in his private workshop, and experimented by adding multiple wheels and ultimately with a track-laying technique.
. The center of innovation was in England, and in the same year Holt traveled to England to learn more about ongoing development. During that period, the chief engineer (and managing director) of Richard Hornsby & Sons
in Grantham
, England, David Roberts
, was experimenting with a chain-track. Hornsby's design incorporated a steering clutch that varied the speed of each set of wheels, allowing the operator to turn the tractor by retarding one tread or the other. Roberts of Hornsby & Sons obtained a patent for their design in July 1904.
By December 1903, Holt wielded considerable influence over former competitors, including Houser-Haines Manufacturing and Mattison-Williamson Works.
Holt returned to Stockton and applied his skills and his company's expertise in metallurgy, design, and testing to develop a workable track-laying system. He replaced the wheels on a 40 hp Holt steamer, No. 77, with a set of wooden tracks bolted to chains. On Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1904, he successfully tested the updated machine plowing the soggy delta land of Roberts Island. Company photographer Charles Clements was reported to have observed that the tractor crawled like a caterpillar
, and Holt seized on the metaphor. "Caterpillar it is. That's the name for it!" Others reported that Holt got the name from British troops who witnessed a working prototype of Hornsby's track-type vehicle in July 1907. Continuous tracks allowed practical cultivation of the rich farmland on an industrial scale. The invention also allowed planters to reclaim thousands of acres of delta land previously unusable for farming.
Holt began producing models under the Caterpillar brand. His first production model had a dual-track frame 30 inches (76.2 cm) high by 42 inches (106.7 cm) wide by 9 feet (2.7 m) long. Its tracks used 3 by 4 in (7.6 by 10.2 ) slats made of the same redwood
used previously to produce wagon wheels. Holt sold the first model of steam-powered tractor crawlers for USD$5,500. By 1915, the Holt company employed 1,000 workers in its Stockton plant. Nearly 2,000 Caterpillar crawlers had been sold in more than 20 countries.
Pliny E. Holt, the son of Benjamin's half-brother, William Harrison Holt, had been working with Stockton Wheel Company for the past nine years. In 1906, he was named president of the newly formed Aurora Engine Company, named after Aurora Street in Stockton where it was located. The new company manufactured gasoline engines to replace the large, heavy steam boilers used to power the earlier Holt tractors. A gasoline engine considerably reduced the overall size and weight of a tractor, produced more power per pound of weight, and reduced the tractor's cost, making it more cost-effective and affordable. Holt's most popular gasoline engine tractor was a Model 75, weighing 24000 lbs with a 75 hp engine. Pliny was also treasurer of another subsidiary, the Houser and Haines Manufacturing Company of Stockton, from 1905-09.
As well as having a better power-to-weight ratio
, a gasoline-engined tractor required fewer men to operate it. Competing steam engines typically required a crew of seven, including one highly skilled and well-paid, licensed "farm engineer". He was responsible for rising in the middle of the night to start the boiler fire to get up steam by first light. Steam traction boilers had a huge need for water and fuel, either coal or wood. Much of the seven-man crew's time was spent keeping it fueled.
. During 1914, both Best and Holt introduced models without the front "tiller" or steering wheel. Holt offered the Caterpillar 45 and Best introduced his C. L. Best Model 40 "Tracklayer".
, a letter containing a demand that they stop using the competitor's harvesters or face a lawsuit. In the same month he sued William W. Nelson, George W. Bailey, Henry K. Heiken, Hugh A. Logan, William Sullivan and three other Sullivans for infringement of his patents for "traveling threshers and combined harvesters." The defendants successfully filed a demurrer
, getting the suit dismissed 16 months later. Competitors latched onto Holt's litigious nature and warned farmers considering buying his equipment that they might be prosecuted for patent infringement.
lawsuit ensued between the two. After three years of legal battles, the two companies decided to settle out of court. The parties resolved two suits when Holt made a cash payment to C. L. Best and provided C. L. Best a license giving them access to all Holt patents applying to manufacturing the C. L. Best's "Tracklayers." In 1916, C. L. Best bought his father's old factory in San Leandro, which Holt had closed after acquiring the company. C. L. Best built a new factory on the same location. His company gained attention for its continued improvements to its products.
Although Holt had paid Alvin Orlando Lombard USD$20,000 in 1903 (about $ today) for rights to use his patents, Lombard visited Holt in 1910 complaining of patent infringement
. In the opinion of Holt's "very expensive lawyers", they concluded that Lombard's patents had little value due to prior art
. So when Lombard visited, Holt calmly took him on a leisurely country drive in his Oldsmobile
roadster
, and when Lombard raised the issue of money, Holt merely suggested that they divide the country. Lombard should take up the Northern woods and Holt would take the remainder of the nation. Holt promised to write a letter to that effect, although he never did.
. C. L. Best thought that his best defense was to prove that Holt's patents violated Lombard's patents. One of Best's lawyers, Henry Montgomery, visited Lombard and sought his assistance as a friendly witness. Lombard was more than friendly. He allegedly responded, "By God, young man, I'm glad to see you. If God Almighty could charter me to kill a man, I'd get on the train and go to California and kill old Ben Holt." Best bought all rights to Lombard's 1901 and 1907 patents for $20,000, which pre-dated Holt's "crawler" patents also purchased from Lombard. Holt's earlier rights to the Lombard patents were annulled and Best counter-sued Holt.
s and he registered "Caterpillar" as a trademark in 1911. Since Holt had trademarked Caterpillar, Best named his tractors Tracklayers. In 1911, Holt began building the "Holt Model 60 Caterpillar" in its Stockton plant and a "Holt Model 40-60 Caterpillar" at its East Peoria factory. Additional models followed, including the "Holt Model 60-75 Caterpillar", which sold very well, eventually renamed as the "Holt Model 75 Caterpillar", their best-selling front tiller-wheeled tractor.
left the Holt Manufacturing Company where he had been General Manager and re-established his father's company under the name C. L. Best Gas Traction Co. in Elmhurst, near San Leandro, California. Holt immediately sued, claiming breach of contract
and infringement
because as owner of the Best Manufacturing Company, he believed he also owned the "Best" name. Holt did not prevail and Best continued to produce tractors that directly competed with Holt's models.
Holt continued to innovate and worked to build a tractor that could perform rugged tasks yet was not heavy itself. He fitted adjustable blades onto his tractors and hired them out to grade roads and move soil and rock for construction purposes. By 1916, Holt had sold over 2,000 tractors worldwide.
The concept of a half-wheeled, half-tracked vehicle appeared in the United States around 1916. The Holt company was one of the earliest manufacturers, which attached its crawling tread mechanism to an ordinary 4x2 truck of about three tons' capacity, replacing the rear drive axle.
In England, starting in 1911, David Roberts
of Richard Hornsby & Sons
had attempted to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed. Holt bought the patents related to the "chain track" track-type tractor from Richard Hornsby & Sons
in 1914 for £4,000. Unlike the Holt tractor which had a steerable tiller wheel in front of the tracks, the Hornsby crawler was steered by controlling power to each track.
When World War I
broke out, with the problem of trench warfare
and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. Company Vice-President and General Manager Pliny Holt had retired and traveled to Washington D.C. to offer his services, and was appointed by , Chief of Ordnance, to serve as chairman of the board organized to handle the production of the "Caterpillar" Artillery program.
The British War Office ordered a Holt tractor and put it through trials at Aldershot
. Although it was not as powerful as the 105 hp Foster-Daimler
tractor, the 75 hp Holt was better suited to haul heavy loads over uneven ground. Without a load, the Holt tractor managed a walking pace of 4 miles per hour (1.8 m/s). Towing a load, it could manage 2 mile per hour (0.89408 m/s). Most importantly, Holt tractors were readily available in quantity. The War Office was suitably impressed and chose it as a gun-tractor.
The Holt 75 model gasoline-powered tractor was the first "standard" tractor adopted in quantity. Holt vice president Murray M. Baker
reported that the tractors weighed about 18000 lbs and had 120 hp. The company could not meet the demand for their tractors and licensed other manufacturers to build their design. Holt tractors built under license in Budapest
were used by the Austro-Hungarian Army
in World War I.
Over the next four years, they became a major artillery tractor
, mainly used to haul medium guns like the 6-inch howitzer, the 60-pounder, and later the 9.2-inch
howitzer.
.
Holt tractors were also the inspiration for the development of tanks, which profoundly altered ground warfare tactics. In Europe, Major Ernest Swinton
, sent to France as an army war correspondent
, very soon saw the potential of a track-laying tractor. He proposed to Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, that the British build a power-driven, bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy machine-guns. The idea was initially ignored until Winston Churchill
, First Lord of the Admiralty, learned of it. The War Office discarded the idea of using the Holt tractor, but the Admiralty Landships Committee, formed in February 1915 by Churchill, pursued the idea and chose to use a British firm, Foster and Sons
, whose managing director and designer was Sir William Tritton
. Although Holt parts were not used in British tank development, several important figures were inspired to investigate the possibilities of tracked fighting vehicles by contact with Holt machines. The French also purchased Holts from the USA and, quite independently, used them as the basis for their own early tanks, the Schneider and Saint-Chamond. Later in the War, Holt tractors built under license in Hungary and obtained by the Germans formed the basis of the German A7V tank
..The Holt tractor thus became "one of the most important military vehicles of all time". Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey commented at the end of World War II that, "The four machines that won the war in the Pacific were the submarine, radar, the airplane and the tractor-bulldozer."
By 1916, about 1,000 of Holt's Caterpillar tractors were in use by the British in World War I
. By the end of the war, the British War Office had received 2,100 Holt tractors, about 1,800 of the Holt Model 45 "Caterpillars"; 1,500 of the Holt Model 75 "Caterpillars", and 90 of the Holt six-cylinder Model 120 "Caterpillars", about one-eighth of approximately 5,000 Holt vehicles used by all Allied forces.
s based on the Caterpillar crawler tractor design, at the request of the Naval Consulting board, which work was finally completed in conjunction with the engineers of the Westinghouse company. The first tank Holt built was the Holt Gas-Electric, utilizing a combined gasoline-electric propulsion. A Holt 90 hp four cylinder engine produced power for a G.E.C.
generator, which in its turn provided current to drive two electric motors, one motor for each track. The first prototype was the "Caterpillar" Mark I Gun Mount, which carried an 8 inches (20.3 cm) howitzer
, weighed 58000 lbs and had a road speed of 1 mile per hour (0.44704 m/s) to 4 miles per hour (1.8 m/s). Additional prototypes were produced, including the "Mark II" and "Mark III", and the "Mark IV", which departed slightly from the prior models. Pliny completed a preliminary study of a one-man tank which was later built by the Ford company. The prototypes were rejected after trials found that their size and maneuverability did not offer the relative agility required by a tank for cross-country travel.
Holt also produced the world's first self-propelled artillery, a 75mm gun that could travel at 28 miles per hour (12.5 m/s), exceeding the military requirement of 12 miles per hour (5.4 m/s), and climb a 45 degree slope. Before the work could be completed, the Armistice
was signed and the war ended. Self-propelled artillery however did not garner attention again until the end of the 1930s, just before World War II
.
During 1919, Pliny Holt returned to Stockton and the Holt company where the "Mark VII" was designed and built. It had a 75 millimetres (3 in) gun mounted and ran at a top speed of 18 miles per hour (8 m/s). In 1921, the company finished the "Mark VI", which achieved speeds of up to 31 miles per hour (13.9 m/s) on a test run from Stockton to San Francisco and back.
traveled to Stockton to publicly honor Benjamin Holt and his company. On April 22, 1918, he recognized their contribution to the war effort and relayed England's gratitude to the developer of the track. Benjamin Holt was recognized by the General at a public meeting held in Stockton. A wooden mock-up of a one-person tank powered by a motorcycle engine was built especially for and showcased in pictures of General Swinton's visit.
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Benjamin Holt
Benjamin Holt
Benjamin Leroy Holt was an American inventor who was the first to patent and manufacture a first practical crawler-type tread tractor. The continuous-type track is used for heavy agricultural and engineering vehicles to spread the weight over a large area to prevent the vehicle from sinking into...
, who was later credited with patenting the first workable crawler tractor design, incorporated the Holt Manufacturing Company in 1892. Holt Manufacturing Company was the first company to successfully manufacture a continuous track tractor. By the turn of the twentieth century Holt Manufacturing Conmpany was the leading manufacturer of combine harvesters in the United States and the leading California-based manufacturer of steam traction engines.
Holt Manufacturing Company operated from its base in Stockton, California, until opening a satellite facility in Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
, to serve the Pacific Northwest. In 1909, Holt Manufacturing Company expaneded by purchasing the facility of defunct farm implement maker Colean Manufacturing Company in East Peoria, Illinois
East Peoria, Illinois
East Peoria is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 23,402 at the 2010 census. East Peoria is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area, located across the Illinois River from downtown Peoria. It is home to many Caterpillar Inc. facilities...
. Holt changed the name of the company to Holt Caterpillar Company, although he did not trademark the name Caterpillar until 1911.
The company's initial products focused on agricultural machinery
Agricultural machinery
Agricultural machinery is machinery used in the operation of an agricultural area or farm.-Hand tools:The first person to turn from the hunting and gathering lifestyle to farming probably did so by using his bare hands, and perhaps some sticks or stones. Tools such as knives, scythes, and wooden...
and were distributed internationally. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, almost all of its production capacity was dedicated to military needs. Its tractors replaced horses
Mechanization
Mechanization or mechanisation is providing human operators with machinery that assists them with the muscular requirements of work or displaces muscular work. In some fields, mechanization includes the use of hand tools...
and were widely used by the Allies as artillery tractor
Artillery tractor
Artillery tractor is a kind of tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, a vehicle used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights.-Traction:...
s and for hauling supplies. British General Ernest Swinton
Ernest Dunlop Swinton
Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, KBE, CB, DSO, RE was a military writer and British Army officer. Swinton is credited with influencing the development and adoption of the tank by the British during the First World War. He is also known for popularising the term "no-mans land".-Early life...
recognized in the Holt tractor
Holt tractor
The Holt tractors were a range of caterpillar tractors built by the Holt Manufacturing Company, which was named after Benjamin Holt- Military Use :...
the potential for a power-driven, bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s, although the British later chose an English firm to build the first tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s. Holt's equipment was credited with helping to win the war and its tractor was regarded as "one of the most important military vehicles of all time." The Holt Manufacturing Company gained worldwide recognition for the quality and durability of its equipment.
As the war ended, the Holt company was left with huge surplus inventories of heavy-duty tractors ill-suited for the agricultural market, which had been dominated during the war by the Holt Company's primary competitor, C. L. Best
C. L. Best
thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best , usually known as C. L. Best, was a pioneering tractor company executive. C. L. Best founded the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company in 1910 thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best...
. The company decided to focus instead on heavy construction equipment and sought to capitalize on the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921
Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 (Phipps Act)
The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921, November 9, 1921, ,sponsored by Sen. Lawrence C. Phipps of Colorado, defined the Federal Aid Road program to develop an immense national highway system. The plan was crafted by the head of the National Highway Commission, Thomas MacDonald and was the first...
. Laden with debt and needing more capital to switch its product line, the company struggled to move forward.
Both the Holt Manufacturing Company and C. L. Best were hurt by the depression of 1920–21 which further inhibited sales. Both companies streamlined their over-lapping product lines. The two companies had spent about US$1.5 million (about $ today) in legal fees fighting each other in various contractual
Breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
, trademark
Trademark infringement
Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees...
and patent infringement
Patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
lawsuits since 1905, but, on the advice of investors, the two companies merged in 1925 to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co. In 2010, Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
was the 229th largest company in the world.
Company origins
Charles H. Holt arrived in San Francisco from Concord, New HampshireConcord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....
, in 1864 to form C. H. Holt and Co. Initially the company produced wooden wheels for wagons and, later on, steel wheels for streetcars. In 1869, at age 20, his younger brother Benjamin went to work in their father's sawmill in New Hampshire along with William Harrison Holt and Ames Frank Holt, preparing hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
s for shipping to Charles in San Francisco. William and Ames joined Charles in San Francisco in 1871.
In the same year, Charles and Ames established the Holt Brothers Company in San Francisco. The company sold hardwood, lumber, and wagon and carriage materials, primarily manufacturing wagon axles, wheels, and frames. W. Harrison Holt and Ames both temporarily returned around 1871 to New Hampshire – where both were married – to manage the eastern business. The brothers built a factory in Concord, New Hampshire, to manufacture wagon wheels, wheel components, bodies and running gear. In 1872, at age 23, Benjamin was given an interest in his father's business, and he assumed more responsibility for the company's operations. W. Harrison Holt moved to Tiffin, Ohio
Tiffin, Ohio
Tiffin is a city in and the county seat of Seneca County, Ohio, United States. The population was 18,135 at the 2000 census. The National Arbor Day Foundation has designated Tiffin as a Tree City USA....
, to manage the company's lumber business there, where he remained until the early 1880s. Their mother died in 1875, and their father died eight years later in 1883. After his father's death, Benjamin Holt left New Hampshire in 1883 to help Charles build the business in California.
Charles, Benjamin and Frank incorporated the Holt Bros. Company on January 7, 1892, to deal in lumber and iron. Four days later, they also filed incorporation papers for "Holt Manufacturing Company" with Charles H. Holt, Benjamin Holt, Frank A. Holt, G. H. Cowie and G. L. Dickenson as directors.
The Holt Bros. Company formed a subsidiary, the "The Stockton Wheel Company", to build the wheels. They based their company in the warm Central Valley town of Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
. Stockton was an ideal location, as it could be reached by sea-going ship via the San Joaquin River
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River is the largest river of Central California in the United States. At over long, the river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through a rich agricultural region known as the San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean...
, 72 miles (115.9 km) east of San Francisco, and was hot enough to season woods in a way that would prepare them for use in the arid valleys of California and the deserts of the West. The factory cost USD$65,000 (or about $ ) to build and used a 40-horsepower Corliss steam engine
Corliss Steam Engine
A Corliss steam engine is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the American engineer George Henry Corliss in Providence, Rhode Island....
that had been manufactured in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, and shipped around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
. All of the plant's machines were driven by belts
Line shaft
A line shaft is a power transmission system used extensively during the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the widespread use of electric motors small enough to be connected directly to each piece of machinery, line shafting was used to distribute power from a large central power source to machinery...
connected to the Corliss engine.
Brothers Charles and Benjamin eventually bought-out the other brothers, with Charles running the business side and Benjamin running manufacturing operations.
During the first year, the Holt subsidiary Stockton Wheel Company produced 6,000 wagon wheels and 5,000 carriage bodies. One of their most popular wheel types was 10 feet (3 m) in diameter and used by redwood
Sequoiadendron
Sequoiadendron giganteum is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees known as redwoods, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae, together with Sequoia sempervirens and...
loggers, who connected two of these wheels with a strong 10 feet (3 m) axle, and then attached a team of horses to pull logs from the forest.
Farm equipment and tractors
In the late 19th century, there were a large number of companies across the world striving to build a practical horse-drawn combine harvesterCombine harvester
The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from the fact that it combines three separate operations, reaping, threshing, and winnowing, into a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn ,...
and other farm equipment. They soon moved on inventing steam-powered farm machinery and, later, designs for crawler-type tractors. More than 100 patents were issued for various crawler designs. Holt began manufacturing horse-drawn combine harvesters in the 1890s and converted to steam-power types around the turn of the 20th century. Over the next few years Benjamin Holt designed and manufactured the first successful crawler-type tractor and designed a gasoline engine (see Tractor design, below.)
In California, the Best Manufacturing Company
Best Manufacturing Company
The Best Manufacturing Company of San Leandro, California was a manufacturer of farm machinery, now probably most well known for its steam tractors....
of San Leandro
San Leandro, California
San Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...
and the Holt Manufacturing Company were direct competitors. In 1905, they resolved a patent infringement
Patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
lawsuit when Daniel Best
Daniel Best
Daniel Best was an American adventurer, inventor, and entrepreneur known for pioneering agriculture machinery and heavy machinery.-Early years:...
retired and gave one-third of Best Manufacturing Company to his son, Clarence Leo ("C. L.") Best
C. L. Best
thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best , usually known as C. L. Best, was a pioneering tractor company executive. C. L. Best founded the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company in 1910 thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best...
. He sold the remaining two-thirds to Benjamin Holt for USD$325,000 (roughly equivalent to $ today). C. L. Best was made plant manager of the new concern, but Holt retained effective control. C. L. did not stay long, however, but left in 1910 to form the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company
C. L. Best
thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best , usually known as C. L. Best, was a pioneering tractor company executive. C. L. Best founded the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company in 1910 thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best...
to replace his father's firm, resulting in further difficulties between the two men. Holt registered "Caterpillar" as a trademark in 1911.
Plant in Illinois
Holt wanted to find manufacturing facilities closer to the vast agricultural markets of the midwest. Benjamin Holt's nephew, Pliny E. Holt, had been dispatched in March 1909 to Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, where he began manufacturing operations. They shipped parts for ten Model 45 tractors, but only two were produced. Pliny met Murray Baker
Murray M. Baker
Murray Morrison Baker was the first executive vice president of Holt Manufacturing Company that became Caterpillar Tractor Company....
, an implement dealer, who knew of an available factory that had been used to manufacture farm implements and steam traction engine
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
s. Baker, who later became the first executive vice president of what became Caterpillar Tractor Company
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
, wrote to Holt headquarters in Stockton and described the plant of the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Co. of East Peoria, Illinois
East Peoria, Illinois
East Peoria is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 23,402 at the 2010 census. East Peoria is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area, located across the Illinois River from downtown Peoria. It is home to many Caterpillar Inc. facilities...
. Pliny inspected the Colean factory in late June 1909 and learned they had spent at least $450,000 on the relatively new building and machinery. Holt could acquire the assets for the $50,000 note held by a trust company. Pliny Holt wrote a letter to the Stockton management team on July 1, 1909, reporting, "The plant is as complete and perfect in every detail as I have ever seen ... and one of the best arranged plants that I ever saw."
On October 25, 1909, Pliny Holt purchased the factory, and immediately began preparing the plant for operations with 12 employees.
The "Holt Caterpillar Company" was incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
in both Illinois and California on January 12, 1910, and Pliny accepted the deed to the plant on Feb. 16, 1910. East Peoria became Holt Manufacturing Company's eastern manufacturing plant, competing with the nearby Avery Tractor Company
Avery Co.
Avery Company was an American farm tractor builder, famed for its undermounted engine, in that the tractor more resembled a railroad engine in a farmer's field, than a conventional farm steam engine....
.
The Peoria facility proved so profitable that only two years later the Peoria facility employed 625 people and was exporting tractors to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Tractors were built in both Stockton and East Peoria.
Los Angeles Aqueduct
Los Angeles Aqueduct
The Los Angeles Aqueduct system comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power...
bought one of Holt's Model 70-120
Holt tractor
The Holt tractors were a range of caterpillar tractors built by the Holt Manufacturing Company, which was named after Benjamin Holt- Military Use :...
tractors to haul supplies across the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
. It effortlessly hauled 30 short tons (26.8 LT) up a 14% grade. They were so impressed that they ordered 26 more, giving the Holt tractor and the company considerable credibility and substantially boosting sales.
Subsidiaries merged
In 1913, Holt merged its various companies into the Holt Manufacturing Company, with a combined capital of USD$3 million. The merged subsidiaries were: the Stockton Wheel Co.; the Houser and Haines Manufacturing Company of Stockton; the Aurora Engine Company of Stockton; the Best Manufacturing Company of San Leandro; the Canadian Holt Company, Limited of CalgaryCalgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
; the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton; and the Holt Caterpillar Company of Peoria, Illinois.
Post-war challenges
Holt tractors were widely used as artillery tractorArtillery tractor
Artillery tractor is a kind of tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, a vehicle used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights.-Traction:...
s during World War I and their capabilities and reliability had become well-known. Benjamin Holt also gained valuable experience securing government contracts. These capabilities separated him from his competition. Holt had obtained significant loans and begun a large expansion to meet the war planners' need for his tractors.
C. L. Best Gas Tractor Company
C. L. Best
thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best , usually known as C. L. Best, was a pioneering tractor company executive. C. L. Best founded the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company in 1910 thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best...
had meanwhile concentrated on supplying the market for smaller agricultural tractors. Although Best did not make tractors for the war effort, they had secured promises from the federal government that they would be able to obtain all the steel required to continue building tractors for farmers during the war. As a result, Best had gained a considerable market advantage over Holt by war's end. Best also assumed considerable debt to allow it to continue expansion, especially production of its new Best Model 60 "Tracklayer".
When the war ended, Holt's planned expansion to meet the military's needs was no longer needed. The company was left in a difficult situation. The types of tractors needed by the military were very different from what farmers needed. Their situation was worsened as artillery tractors were brought back from Europe, depressing prices for new equipment and Holt's unsold inventory of military tractors. The company moved to focus less on agricultural machinery and more on producing road-building equipment. To keep the company afloat, they borrowed heavily.
Both companies were affected by the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy, which contributed to a nationwide depression, further inhibiting sales.
On December 5, 1920, 71-year-old Benjamin Holt died after a month-long illness. Holt had been considered a "quiet and unassuming man who loved his work". He was well liked by his workers and dedicated a trust fund for employees who suffered financial difficulties.
Caterpillar company formed
The banks who held the company's large debt forced the Holt board of directors to accept their candidate, Thomas A. Baxter, to succeed Benjamin Holt. Baxter was a former Boston banker who had joined the Holt company in 1913 as a business manager. The company struggled with the transition from wartime boom to peacetime bust. Baxter initially cut the large tractors from the company's product line and introduced smaller models focused on the agricultural market. When the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 (Phipps Act)
The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921, November 9, 1921, ,sponsored by Sen. Lawrence C. Phipps of Colorado, defined the Federal Aid Road program to develop an immense national highway system. The plan was crafted by the head of the National Highway Commission, Thomas MacDonald and was the first...
funded a USD$1 billion federal highway building program, Baxter began focusing company assets towards road construction. Along with the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company, formed by Clarence Leo Best
C. L. Best
thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best , usually known as C. L. Best, was a pioneering tractor company executive. C. L. Best founded the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company in 1910 thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best...
in 1910, Holt faced fierce competition with the Fordson
Fordson tractor
Fordson was a brand name used on a range of mass produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son, Inc, from 1917 until 1920 when it was merged into the Ford Motor Company, which used the name until 1964...
company.
Between 1907 and 1918, Best and Holt had spent about USD$1.5 million in legal fees fighting each other. The two companies competed economically and intellectually: Benjamin Holt had 47 patents in his name, while his nephew Pliny Holt had 38 patents; Best founder Daniel Best received 42 patents and his son C. L. Best had 27 patents.
Harry H. Fair of the bond brokerage house of Pierce, Fair & Company of San Francisco was involved in funding C. L. Best's debt, when Holt shareholders approached him about their company's financial plight. He concluded that both companies might not survive and recommended that the Holt and Best companies should consolidate operations. In April and May 1925, the financially stronger C. L. Best merged with the market leader Holt Caterpillar to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co.
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
Baxter had been removed as CEO earlier in 1925, and Clarence Leo Best assumed the title of CEO, and remained in that role until October, 1951. The new company was headquartered in San Leandro until 1930, when under the terms of the merger it was moved to Peoria.
The Caterpillar company consolidated its product lines, offering only five track-type tractors: the 2 Ton, 5 Ton, and 10 Ton from the Holt Manufacturing Company's old product line and the and from the C. L. Best Tractor Co.'s former product line. The 10 Ton and 5 Ton models were discontinued in 1926. In 1928, the 2 Ton was discontinued. The first completely new tractor produced after the union of the two companies was the 1929 Caterpillar L20.
After Benjamin Holt's death in 1920, William K. "Bill" Holt formed the first Caterpillar dealership in Mexico. In 1933, he was authorized to operate the dealership for the 60 southern counties of Texas. The company merged with another Holt business and was renamed HOLT CAT. It continues as the largest Caterpillar dealerships in the United States.
As of 2010, Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
was the 229nd largest company in the world,
In 2011, Caterpillar was the best-performing stock last year among the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average with a market value of USD$45.13 billion. Caterpillar is one of the 30 companies whose stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
is tracked in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average , also called the Industrial Average, the Dow Jones, the Dow 30, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index, and one of several indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow...
. It is a Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
company, ranked number 229 in 2010, and first in its industry, with more than $67 billion in asset
Asset
In financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset...
s.
Horse-drawn combine harvester
Among his brothers, Benjamin showed himself to be the most technically adept. He saw the need for farm machinery and expanded the company's line to include farm equipment, including combine harvesterCombine harvester
The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from the fact that it combines three separate operations, reaping, threshing, and winnowing, into a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn ,...
s and the steam-powered traction engine
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
s required to pull them through the fields. In 1883, Benjamin Holt produced his first horse-drawn "Link-Belt Combined Harvester". It allowed a farmer to combine cutting
Harvest
Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...
and threshing
Threshing
Threshing is the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain from the scaly, inedible chaff that surrounds it. It is the step in grain preparation after harvesting and before winnowing, which separates the loosened chaff from the grain...
grain into a single mechanical operation, enabling farmers to cut more wheat in one pass, increasing productivity and cutting labor hours nearly in half. One key innovation Holt implemented was using flexible chain belts
Chain drive
Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles...
rather than gear
Gear
A gear is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part in order to transmit torque. Two or more gears working in tandem are called a transmission and can produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a simple machine....
s to transmit power from the ground wheels to the working parts of the machine.
In 1886, the company sold its first combine harvester
Combine harvester
The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from the fact that it combines three separate operations, reaping, threshing, and winnowing, into a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn ,...
. It had a 14 feet (4.3 m) cutting bar and was pulled by an 18-horse team. The largest combine Stockton Wheel Co. manufactured had a 50 feet (15.2 m) cutting bar. In comparison, large modern combines have a 20 feet (6.1 m) cutting bar. Some of the Holt combines needed as many as 40 horses to operate.
Holt adapted the combine to work on slopes. He added two separate wooden frames which enabled the drive wheels to be raised or lowered independently. This allowed the combine to operate on slopes as steep as 30 degrees while the threshing machine remained level. In 1890, Holt built his first experimental steam traction engine
Traction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
, nicknamed "Old Betsy". Built on a 24 feet (7.3 m) frame, it developed 60 hp from a single cylinder
Cylinder (engine)
A cylinder is the central working part of a reciprocating engine or pump, the space in which a piston travels. Multiple cylinders are commonly arranged side by side in a bank, or engine block, which is typically cast from aluminum or cast iron before receiving precision machine work...
(11 inches (279.4 mm), 12 inches (304.8 mm)). The firebox could burn wood, coal, or oil as fuel. Carrying 675 gal of water, the traction engine weighed 48000 lbs and rode on huge metal wheels. Holt's tractors were popular despite their weight and awkward size because they could harvest large fields for one-sixth the cost of a horse-drawn combine. Foresters soon adapted them to haul redwood
Sequoiadendron
Sequoiadendron giganteum is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees known as redwoods, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae, together with Sequoia sempervirens and...
logs out of road-less forests. By 1897, the company had about 200 employees and had sold over 800 of their combined harvesters in California. Holt Manufacturing made about 130 steam-powered tractors between 1890 and 1904.
The steam tractors were extremely heavy, sometimes weighing 1000 pounds (453.6 kg) per horsepower
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
, and often sank into the rich, soft earth of the San Joaquin Valley Delta farmland surrounding Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
. Holt tried to solve the problem by increasing the size and width of the wheels, but this also made the tractors increasingly complex, expensive and difficult to maintain. One tractor had wheels 7.5 feet (2.3 m) tall and 6 feet (1.8 m) wide, producing a tractor 46 feet (14 m) wide. Holt could spend hours in his private workshop, and experimented by adding multiple wheels and ultimately with a track-laying technique.
First workable crawling tread
Many people had attempted to add tracks to moving machines. Over 100 patents had already been issued worldwide, but all failed to work in practical situations. In 1903 Benjamin Holt paid Alvin Lombard USD$60,000 for the right to produce vehicles under Lombard's patent for the Lombard Steam Log HaulerLombard Steam Log Hauler
The Lombard Steam Log Hauler, patented 29 May 1901, was the first successful commercial application of a continuous track for vehicle propulsion. The concept was later used for military tanks during World War I and for agricultural tractors and construction equipment following the...
. The center of innovation was in England, and in the same year Holt traveled to England to learn more about ongoing development. During that period, the chief engineer (and managing director) of Richard Hornsby & Sons
Richard Hornsby & Sons
Richard Hornsby & Sons was an engine and machinery manufacturer in Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918. The company was a pioneer in the manufacture of the oil engine developed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart and marketed under the Hornsby-Akroyd name. The company developed an early track system...
in Grantham
Grantham
Grantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It bestrides the East Coast Main Line railway , the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately east of Nottingham...
, England, David Roberts
David Roberts (engineer)
David Roberts was the Chief Engineer and managing director of Richard Hornsby & Sons in the early 1900s...
, was experimenting with a chain-track. Hornsby's design incorporated a steering clutch that varied the speed of each set of wheels, allowing the operator to turn the tractor by retarding one tread or the other. Roberts of Hornsby & Sons obtained a patent for their design in July 1904.
By December 1903, Holt wielded considerable influence over former competitors, including Houser-Haines Manufacturing and Mattison-Williamson Works.
Holt returned to Stockton and applied his skills and his company's expertise in metallurgy, design, and testing to develop a workable track-laying system. He replaced the wheels on a 40 hp Holt steamer, No. 77, with a set of wooden tracks bolted to chains. On Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1904, he successfully tested the updated machine plowing the soggy delta land of Roberts Island. Company photographer Charles Clements was reported to have observed that the tractor crawled like a caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
, and Holt seized on the metaphor. "Caterpillar it is. That's the name for it!" Others reported that Holt got the name from British troops who witnessed a working prototype of Hornsby's track-type vehicle in July 1907. Continuous tracks allowed practical cultivation of the rich farmland on an industrial scale. The invention also allowed planters to reclaim thousands of acres of delta land previously unusable for farming.
Holt began producing models under the Caterpillar brand. His first production model had a dual-track frame 30 inches (76.2 cm) high by 42 inches (106.7 cm) wide by 9 feet (2.7 m) long. Its tracks used 3 by 4 in (7.6 by 10.2 ) slats made of the same redwood
Sequoiadendron
Sequoiadendron giganteum is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees known as redwoods, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae, together with Sequoia sempervirens and...
used previously to produce wagon wheels. Holt sold the first model of steam-powered tractor crawlers for USD$5,500. By 1915, the Holt company employed 1,000 workers in its Stockton plant. Nearly 2,000 Caterpillar crawlers had been sold in more than 20 countries.
Gasoline engines
As well as having a better power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement of actual performance of any engine or power sources...
, a gasoline-engined tractor required fewer men to operate it. Competing steam engines typically required a crew of seven, including one highly skilled and well-paid, licensed "farm engineer". He was responsible for rising in the middle of the night to start the boiler fire to get up steam by first light. Steam traction boilers had a huge need for water and fuel, either coal or wood. Much of the seven-man crew's time was spent keeping it fueled.
Tiller wheel
C. L. Best introduced a crawler tractor in 1913 that was virtually a carbon copy of Holt's design. Holt's tractors had a conventional wheel on the front, which was used to steer, and crawling-type wheels on the back, but otherwise looked very similar to a traction engineTraction engine
A traction engine is a self-propelled steam engine used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it...
. During 1914, both Best and Holt introduced models without the front "tiller" or steering wheel. Holt offered the Caterpillar 45 and Best introduced his C. L. Best Model 40 "Tracklayer".
Patents and trademark disputes
Benjamin Holt aggressively defended his patents and was quick to sue anyone he felt might infringing on his rights. In June 1899, he claimed that the Haines-Houser's tractors used certain devices for which Holt held the trademark. Holt sent all farmers who owned Haines-Houser tractors in Yolo County, CaliforniaYolo County, California
Yolo County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, bordered by the other counties of Sacramento, Solano, Napa, Lake, Colusa, and Sutter. The city of Woodland is its county seat, though Davis is its largest city....
, a letter containing a demand that they stop using the competitor's harvesters or face a lawsuit. In the same month he sued William W. Nelson, George W. Bailey, Henry K. Heiken, Hugh A. Logan, William Sullivan and three other Sullivans for infringement of his patents for "traveling threshers and combined harvesters." The defendants successfully filed a demurrer
Demurrer
A demurrer is a pleading in a lawsuit that objects to or challenges a pleading filed by an opposing party. The word demur means "to object"; a demurrer is the document that makes the objection...
, getting the suit dismissed 16 months later. Competitors latched onto Holt's litigious nature and warned farmers considering buying his equipment that they might be prosecuted for patent infringement.
Holt payment to Best
In 1905, a patent infringementPatent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
lawsuit ensued between the two. After three years of legal battles, the two companies decided to settle out of court. The parties resolved two suits when Holt made a cash payment to C. L. Best and provided C. L. Best a license giving them access to all Holt patents applying to manufacturing the C. L. Best's "Tracklayers." In 1916, C. L. Best bought his father's old factory in San Leandro, which Holt had closed after acquiring the company. C. L. Best built a new factory on the same location. His company gained attention for its continued improvements to its products.
Holt buys Lombard patent
Holt received a patent on December 7, 1907, for his improved "Traction Engine" ("improvement in vehicles, and especially of the traction engine class; and included endless traveling platform supports upon which the engine is carried"). In 1908, he designed a gasoline engine to power the tractor.Although Holt had paid Alvin Orlando Lombard USD$20,000 in 1903 (about $ today) for rights to use his patents, Lombard visited Holt in 1910 complaining of patent infringement
Patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
. In the opinion of Holt's "very expensive lawyers", they concluded that Lombard's patents had little value due to prior art
Prior art
Prior art , in most systems of patent law, constitutes all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to a patent's claims of originality...
. So when Lombard visited, Holt calmly took him on a leisurely country drive in his Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
roadster
Roadster
A roadster is a two-seat open car with emphasis on sporty handling and without a fixed roof or side weather protection. Strictly speaking a roadster with wind-up windows is a convertible but as true roadsters are no longer made the distinction is now irrelevant...
, and when Lombard raised the issue of money, Holt merely suggested that they divide the country. Lombard should take up the Northern woods and Holt would take the remainder of the nation. Holt promised to write a letter to that effect, although he never did.
Best invalidates Lombard patent
In 1915, the C. L. Best Gas Traction Co. exhibited its new "Tracklayer" at the California state fair. Holt once again sued, this time for patent infringementPatent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
. C. L. Best thought that his best defense was to prove that Holt's patents violated Lombard's patents. One of Best's lawyers, Henry Montgomery, visited Lombard and sought his assistance as a friendly witness. Lombard was more than friendly. He allegedly responded, "By God, young man, I'm glad to see you. If God Almighty could charter me to kill a man, I'd get on the train and go to California and kill old Ben Holt." Best bought all rights to Lombard's 1901 and 1907 patents for $20,000, which pre-dated Holt's "crawler" patents also purchased from Lombard. Holt's earlier rights to the Lombard patents were annulled and Best counter-sued Holt.
Caterpillar trademark
Holt was credited with producing the first practical continuous tracks for use with tractorTractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
s and he registered "Caterpillar" as a trademark in 1911. Since Holt had trademarked Caterpillar, Best named his tractors Tracklayers. In 1911, Holt began building the "Holt Model 60 Caterpillar" in its Stockton plant and a "Holt Model 40-60 Caterpillar" at its East Peoria factory. Additional models followed, including the "Holt Model 60-75 Caterpillar", which sold very well, eventually renamed as the "Holt Model 75 Caterpillar", their best-selling front tiller-wheeled tractor.
New Best competitor re-emerges
In 1910, Daniel Best's son C. L. BestC. L. Best
thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best , usually known as C. L. Best, was a pioneering tractor company executive. C. L. Best founded the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company in 1910 thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best...
left the Holt Manufacturing Company where he had been General Manager and re-established his father's company under the name C. L. Best Gas Traction Co. in Elmhurst, near San Leandro, California. Holt immediately sued, claiming breach of contract
Breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
and infringement
Trademark infringement
Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees...
because as owner of the Best Manufacturing Company, he believed he also owned the "Best" name. Holt did not prevail and Best continued to produce tractors that directly competed with Holt's models.
Holt continued to innovate and worked to build a tractor that could perform rugged tasks yet was not heavy itself. He fitted adjustable blades onto his tractors and hired them out to grade roads and move soil and rock for construction purposes. By 1916, Holt had sold over 2,000 tractors worldwide.
Early military uses
In England, starting in 1911, David Roberts
David Roberts (engineer)
David Roberts was the Chief Engineer and managing director of Richard Hornsby & Sons in the early 1900s...
of Richard Hornsby & Sons
Richard Hornsby & Sons
Richard Hornsby & Sons was an engine and machinery manufacturer in Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918. The company was a pioneer in the manufacture of the oil engine developed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart and marketed under the Hornsby-Akroyd name. The company developed an early track system...
had attempted to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed. Holt bought the patents related to the "chain track" track-type tractor from Richard Hornsby & Sons
Richard Hornsby & Sons
Richard Hornsby & Sons was an engine and machinery manufacturer in Lincolnshire, England from 1828 until 1918. The company was a pioneer in the manufacture of the oil engine developed by Herbert Akroyd Stuart and marketed under the Hornsby-Akroyd name. The company developed an early track system...
in 1914 for £4,000. Unlike the Holt tractor which had a steerable tiller wheel in front of the tracks, the Hornsby crawler was steered by controlling power to each track.
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out, with the problem of trench warfare
Trench warfare
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. Company Vice-President and General Manager Pliny Holt had retired and traveled to Washington D.C. to offer his services, and was appointed by , Chief of Ordnance, to serve as chairman of the board organized to handle the production of the "Caterpillar" Artillery program.
The British War Office ordered a Holt tractor and put it through trials at Aldershot
Aldershot
Aldershot is a town in the English county of Hampshire, located on heathland about southwest of London. The town is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council...
. Although it was not as powerful as the 105 hp Foster-Daimler
William Foster & Co.
William Foster & Co Ltd was an agricultural machinery company based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England and usually just called "Fosters of Lincoln." The company can be traced back to 1846, when William Foster purchased a flour mill in Lincoln. William Foster then proceeded to start small scale...
tractor, the 75 hp Holt was better suited to haul heavy loads over uneven ground. Without a load, the Holt tractor managed a walking pace of 4 miles per hour (1.8 m/s). Towing a load, it could manage 2 mile per hour (0.89408 m/s). Most importantly, Holt tractors were readily available in quantity. The War Office was suitably impressed and chose it as a gun-tractor.
The Holt 75 model gasoline-powered tractor was the first "standard" tractor adopted in quantity. Holt vice president Murray M. Baker
Murray M. Baker
Murray Morrison Baker was the first executive vice president of Holt Manufacturing Company that became Caterpillar Tractor Company....
reported that the tractors weighed about 18000 lbs and had 120 hp. The company could not meet the demand for their tractors and licensed other manufacturers to build their design. Holt tractors built under license in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
were used by the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
in World War I.
Over the next four years, they became a major artillery tractor
Artillery tractor
Artillery tractor is a kind of tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, a vehicle used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights.-Traction:...
, mainly used to haul medium guns like the 6-inch howitzer, the 60-pounder, and later the 9.2-inch
BL 9.2 inch Howitzer
The Ordnance BL 9.2 inch howitzer was the principal counter-battery equipment of British forces in France in World War I. It equipped a substantial number of siege batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery...
howitzer.
Hauled artillery and supplies
The Allies used crawler tractors to replace horses for hauling artillery and other supplies. The full advantages of a track-laying vehicle appear not to have been realized until they were used in the quagmire of Northern France. The tracks allowed it to negotiate terrain that was impassable to horse teams and wheeled vehicles. The Quartermaster Corps also used them to haul long trains of freight wagons over the unimproved dirt tracks behind the front. However, the Holt tractor really proved its usefulness when in October 1917, Britain and France each sent six divisions to assist the Italians. The Holt tractor ferried the supplies and ammunition over the steep and twisting mountain roads in less than two weeks. Two companies of Holt tractors with the dual role of gun-tractors and supply trains were based at MesopotamiaBasra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
.
Holt tractors were also the inspiration for the development of tanks, which profoundly altered ground warfare tactics. In Europe, Major Ernest Swinton
Ernest Dunlop Swinton
Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, KBE, CB, DSO, RE was a military writer and British Army officer. Swinton is credited with influencing the development and adoption of the tank by the British during the First World War. He is also known for popularising the term "no-mans land".-Early life...
, sent to France as an army war correspondent
War correspondent
A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories firsthand from a war zone. In the 19th century they were also called Special Correspondents.-Methods:...
, very soon saw the potential of a track-laying tractor. He proposed to Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, that the British build a power-driven, bullet-proof, tracked vehicle that could destroy enemy machine-guns. The idea was initially ignored until Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, First Lord of the Admiralty, learned of it. The War Office discarded the idea of using the Holt tractor, but the Admiralty Landships Committee, formed in February 1915 by Churchill, pursued the idea and chose to use a British firm, Foster and Sons
William Foster & Co.
William Foster & Co Ltd was an agricultural machinery company based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England and usually just called "Fosters of Lincoln." The company can be traced back to 1846, when William Foster purchased a flour mill in Lincoln. William Foster then proceeded to start small scale...
, whose managing director and designer was Sir William Tritton
William Tritton
Sir William Ashbee Tritton, M.I.Mech.E., J.P. was an expert in agricultural machinery, and was directly involved, together with Major Walter Gordon Wilson, in the development of the tank...
. Although Holt parts were not used in British tank development, several important figures were inspired to investigate the possibilities of tracked fighting vehicles by contact with Holt machines. The French also purchased Holts from the USA and, quite independently, used them as the basis for their own early tanks, the Schneider and Saint-Chamond. Later in the War, Holt tractors built under license in Hungary and obtained by the Germans formed the basis of the German A7V tank
A7V
The A7V was a tank introduced by Germany in 1918, near the end of World War I. One hundred vehicles were ordered during the spring of 1918, but only 21 were delivered. It was nicknamed "The Moving Fortress" by the British because of the shape of the hull...
..The Holt tractor thus became "one of the most important military vehicles of all time". Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey commented at the end of World War II that, "The four machines that won the war in the Pacific were the submarine, radar, the airplane and the tractor-bulldozer."
By 1916, about 1,000 of Holt's Caterpillar tractors were in use by the British in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. By the end of the war, the British War Office had received 2,100 Holt tractors, about 1,800 of the Holt Model 45 "Caterpillars"; 1,500 of the Holt Model 75 "Caterpillars", and 90 of the Holt six-cylinder Model 120 "Caterpillars", about one-eighth of approximately 5,000 Holt vehicles used by all Allied forces.
U.S. tank prototypes
In Washington, Pliny Holt supervised the design and building of 10 Ton, 5 Ton, and 2.5 Ton artillery tractorArtillery tractor
Artillery tractor is a kind of tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, a vehicle used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights.-Traction:...
s based on the Caterpillar crawler tractor design, at the request of the Naval Consulting board, which work was finally completed in conjunction with the engineers of the Westinghouse company. The first tank Holt built was the Holt Gas-Electric, utilizing a combined gasoline-electric propulsion. A Holt 90 hp four cylinder engine produced power for a G.E.C.
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
generator, which in its turn provided current to drive two electric motors, one motor for each track. The first prototype was the "Caterpillar" Mark I Gun Mount, which carried an 8 inches (20.3 cm) howitzer
Howitzer
A howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...
, weighed 58000 lbs and had a road speed of 1 mile per hour (0.44704 m/s) to 4 miles per hour (1.8 m/s). Additional prototypes were produced, including the "Mark II" and "Mark III", and the "Mark IV", which departed slightly from the prior models. Pliny completed a preliminary study of a one-man tank which was later built by the Ford company. The prototypes were rejected after trials found that their size and maneuverability did not offer the relative agility required by a tank for cross-country travel.
Holt also produced the world's first self-propelled artillery, a 75mm gun that could travel at 28 miles per hour (12.5 m/s), exceeding the military requirement of 12 miles per hour (5.4 m/s), and climb a 45 degree slope. Before the work could be completed, the Armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
was signed and the war ended. Self-propelled artillery however did not garner attention again until the end of the 1930s, just before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
During 1919, Pliny Holt returned to Stockton and the Holt company where the "Mark VII" was designed and built. It had a 75 millimetres (3 in) gun mounted and ran at a top speed of 18 miles per hour (8 m/s). In 1921, the company finished the "Mark VI", which achieved speeds of up to 31 miles per hour (13.9 m/s) on a test run from Stockton to San Francisco and back.
English gratitude
During the war, British General Ernest Dunlop SwintonErnest Dunlop Swinton
Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton, KBE, CB, DSO, RE was a military writer and British Army officer. Swinton is credited with influencing the development and adoption of the tank by the British during the First World War. He is also known for popularising the term "no-mans land".-Early life...
traveled to Stockton to publicly honor Benjamin Holt and his company. On April 22, 1918, he recognized their contribution to the war effort and relayed England's gratitude to the developer of the track. Benjamin Holt was recognized by the General at a public meeting held in Stockton. A wooden mock-up of a one-person tank powered by a motorcycle engine was built especially for and showcased in pictures of General Swinton's visit.
See also
- Murray M. BakerMurray M. BakerMurray Morrison Baker was the first executive vice president of Holt Manufacturing Company that became Caterpillar Tractor Company....
Holt's first vice-president - C. L. BestC. L. Bestthumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best , usually known as C. L. Best, was a pioneering tractor company executive. C. L. Best founded the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company in 1910 thumb|Patent drawing of the C. L. Best autotractor from 1915Clarence Leo Best...
- Caterpillar Inc. History
- Three-wheeled steam tankThree-wheeled steam tankThe Three-Wheeled Steam Tank was a project created in 1918 and it was several new concepts offered to the United States Army under a program begun enthusiastically the previous year...
External links
- Holt tractors by model TractorData.com Archived from the original on 2010–11–09
- Holt military tractors Tanks! website Archived from the original on 2010–11–09
- Holt Cat - About Us South Texas Caterpillar dealer. Archived from the original on 2010–11–09
- Holt of California Sacramento, California Caterpillar dealer. Archived from the original on 2010–11–09